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Europe|Ion Iliescu, Who Steered Romania After Revolution, Dies at 95
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/world/europe/ion-iliescu-dead.html
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As a three-term as president, he guided the country toward democracy, but he was called an authoritarian at heart and accused of brutality during the revolt that put him in power.
Aug. 5, 2025, 1:49 p.m. ET
Ion Iliescu, Romania’s first post-Communist president, who oversaw the country’s transition to democracy after the overthrow of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 but whose reputation was later tarnished by his own authoritarian tendencies and by charges of brutality over his role in the revolution, died on Tuesday in Bucharest. He was 95.
His death, in a hospital, was announced by the Romanian government. He was reported to have been admitted to the hospital in June and underwent surgery for lung cancer.
Known as “Mr. Smile” by many Romanians because of his perpetual grin, the avuncular Mr. Iliescu served three terms as president and was the pre-eminent figure in the country’s first 15 years after Communism fell.
He played a leading role in the revolution of 1989 that toppled the widely detested Mr. Ceausescu, even as some critics accused him of cleaving to the authoritarianism of the old regime that he claimed to abhor.
In 2018, Romanian prosecutors charged Mr. Iliescu with crimes against humanity, accusing him of having failed to prevent civilian deaths during the bloody revolution — more than 1,100 died, largely after Mr. Ceausescu’s ouster — and for spreading misinformation through the media that sowed panic.
Mr. Iliescu denied the charges at the time, calling the move “a farce.” The case later stalled, though there was a renewed attempt last year to start a new investigation.
